Pakistan deploys troops to subdue protests after blasphemy ruling

Pakistan authorities on Wednesday deployed troops to major cities to tackle protests by Islamist groups against a ruling by the Supreme Court to free Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy.

The troops from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary force were guarding parliament and court buildings in the capital Islamabad as thousands of protestors blocked roads and ransacked government properties.

The military was also called in the eastern city of Lahore after members of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) group tried to storm the regional parliament, Provincial Information Minister Fayyaz Chohan said.

Traffic jams clogged roads in the southern city of Karachi, where parents rushed to schools in panic to pick their children and people headed home from work early due to safety fears.

The protests broke out immediately after a three-judge tribunal ordered the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother who has been on death row since 2010, in a judgement hailed as landmark by rights activists.

The leaders of TLP called for the death of the judges who overturned the death sentence and vowed to continue the protests.

Bibi was sentenced to death by a district court in the central province of Punjab in 2010 for allegedly committing blasphemy in a row with Muslim women while working on a farm.

A higher court in the provincial capital Lahore upheld the sentence in 2014 under the country's controversial blasphemy laws. The case attracted global attention and led to the killing in 2011 of the then-Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who sought reforms to blasphemy laws.

The court said the charges against Bibi were based on weak legal grounds and there was no reason to penalise her. Analysts said the decision would likely restore the confidence of religious minorities in the state institutions of Pakistan, a country with a majority Muslim population that is often accused of discriminating against non-Muslims.

"This decision appears to be a daring attempt by the state to confront Islamists," analyst Irfan Shehzad said.

Pakistan's courts, the parliament and even the military have in the past shied away from actions that could anger violent Islamist groups.

"This judgement is a milestone in Pakistan's struggle for rights and an indication that the state now wants to assert itself," Shehzad added.

Critics say the blasphemy laws have been used in the past to harass and intimidate religious minorities by Muslims.    (dpa)